Tent Reviews

The Eureka Solitaire Tent is an inexpensive one-person bivy style camping tent for people who don’t want to spend a lot of money for a lightweight tent. Weighing less than 3 pounds (see specs below), it provides backpackers and campers with a fully functional alternative to other lightweight and ultralight tents …

The Mountain Hardwear Ghost UL 2 (MSRP $449) is a lightweight, double-walled tent designed for 2 people. Weighing just 2 pounds and 2 ounces, it caters to backpackers willing to sacrifice living comfort for reduced weight. Design The Mountain Hardwear Ghost UL 2 tent is a double-walled, front-entry tent with a …

If you want to buy a camping or backpacking tent, welcome to Babel! The made-up marketing jargon that tent manufacturers and outdoor retailers use to describe their products defies comprehension. It’s no wonder that so many tents are returned to retailers because they don’t measure up to the hype. One marketing term that …

The MSR Freelite 2 Backpacking Tent is a lightweight, two-person, double walled tent that weighs 2 pounds 11 ounces (minus stuff sacks and tent stakes on the SectionHiker scale) While that is 4 ounces more than the MSR’s published specs for this tent, the FreeLite 2 is still a viable …

The Tarptent Notch ($285) is a single person, double walled ultralight tent weighing 27 ounces with two doors and two vestibules. With a removable inner nest (including bathtub floor), the rain fly can be pitched as a standalone tarp or as a complete double-walled tent depending on your needs. When I …

The freestanding 2-person Black Diamond FirstLight Tent the oldest tent that I own. I mainly use it for winter backpacking and still love it because it’s lightweight, freestanding, and fast to set up. At 2 lbs 11 oz, the FirstLight is extraordinarily lightweight for a 4 season tent. It’s a …

The Nemo Obi 1P single person, double-walled tent is spacious, simple, and quite lightweight, weighing just under 3 pounds. With a built-in vestibule, it is suitable for 3+ season camping and backpacking in good weather and bad, with ample external tie-downs to improve its stability in high winds and foul …

The MSR FlyLite is a lightweight, 1 pound 12 ounce, single-wall trekking pole tent that sleeps two comfortably. With vertical side walls and mesh windows that provide excellent interior livability and cross-ventilation, the new FlyLite is perfect for base camp style camping and backpacking at established campsites in fair weather, but its …

There’s a critical design flaw in most of the double walled tents sold in the US. If it’s pouring rain and you go to set up your inner tent first, it’s likely to be soaked before you can cover it up with the rain fly. I’ve seen this happen to …

The EMS Velocity 1 is a lightweight, freestanding and affordable. I think it’s an exceptional value, particularly if you plan on doing any backpacking where you need to camp on unprepared tent sites in the woods or other wilderness areas where unobstructed space is at a premium. Total Weight: 40.0 ounces (2 pounds 8.0 …

The Big Agnes Scout UL 2 person tent is a single wall, ultralight-style tent with ample room for two people. Weighing 1 pound 9 ounces (without tent stakes) it includes an inner tent with high bathtub floors, mesh ventilation, and a roof fly, rivaling many of the features and function of …

I usually replace the factory-supplied tent stakes that come with backpacking tents because they’re too heavy, too short, or they hurt my hands when I pull them out of the ground. My goto tent stakes are: MSR Mini-Groundhog Tent Stakes because the have superior holding power and stand up to rocky …

What is the best family camping tent? What are the must-have attributes of a family camping tent are? How many people should a family camping tent hold? What’s a reasonable price for a quality family camping tent? Best Family Camping Tents Most of our readers equate family camping to car camping, where there’s no …

The outdoor gear company, Wenzel, has started making family camping tents pre-treated with Permethrin, which repels and kill mosquitos and ticks, including those that carry Lyme Disease. I think this is a fantastic development and hope higher-end backpacking tent manufacturers follow Wenzel’s example and start selling backpacking tents that have been …